Falling short: IU loses third straight by one point

The No. 60 IU women’s tennis team fell to No. 22 Notre Dame on Sunday at the IU Tennis Center. The Hoosiers lost their previous two matches 4-3 on the road against Tennessee and Kentucky. For the third consecutive dual, the Hoosiers lost 4-3 after losing the final singles match.

The Fighting Irish defeated Baylor on Saturday in South Bend, Ind. before traveling to Bloomington.

There was fierce competition for the doubles point. Notre Dame’s Jennifer Kellner and Chrissie McGaffigan started off the dual by defeating IU’s sophomore duo, Katie Klyczek and Carolyn Chupa, 8-2.

In the No. 1 match, the No. 44 combination of senior Leslie Hureau and junior Sophie Garre held off the No. 30 pair in the nation, Notre Dame’s Britney Sanders and Julie Sabacinski, 8-5.

IU sophomores Alecia Kauss and Shannon Murdy started the No. 3 match with a 3-0 lead. The Fighting Irish responded to tie the match 6-6, then went up 8-7. Kauss and Murdy fought back to tie the match at eight, Notre Dame’s Quinn Gleason and Katherine White won the tiebreaker, which gave the Fighting Irish a 9-8 victory and the doubles point in the dual match.

IU quickly stole the lead from Notre Dame by winning the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches in consecutive sets. Murdy defeated Julie Vrabel 6-3, 6-4 in the No. 6 match and Garre gave IU its second win just minutes later when she bested Molly O’Koniewski 6-1, 6-3. Chupa topped McGaffigan 6-2, 7-6 to give the Hoosiers a 3-1 lead.

The No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles matches were all decided in three sets. In the No. 2 position, Kellner defeated Klyczek 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to bring Notre Dame within one point of IU. The Fighting Irish tied the match when Gleason bested Kauss 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 in the No. 3 match.

For IU’s third dual in a row, the match came down to the final singles match. Against Tennessee, Garre’s match in the No. 4 position was the deciding point. Against Kentucky, it was Murdy who played in the pivotal No. 6 match.

This time it was Hureau competing with Sanders, who is ranked No. 74 in the country, in the No. 1 singles match with the score of the dual tied at three.

After winning the first set in a tiebreaker, Hureau lost the second set 7-5.

Loring and Notre Dame Coach Jay Louderback sat next to each other in folding chairs sharing observations about the match at the start of the final set.

The players from the two Indiana schools took a different approach as they occupied opposite sides of a nearby court.

Hureau’s eight teammates lined the service box of court No. 3 as she and Sanders swapped points time and time again on court No. 4.

Whether they won or lost their singles and doubles matches, the other Hoosiers’ contributions on the court were done. However, they were still fulfilling their role as teammates in supporting Hureau.

“I definitely needed them because it was so hard,” Hureau said. “Every point was a battle. They really helped me get through it.”

Hureau came out firing at the start of the third set. She took a 3-0 lead that kept the players’ parents on the edges of their seats as they refused to head home until the match was finished.

Then fatigue kicked in for the senior from Annecy-le-Vieux, France.

In between points, she stretched her quadriceps as her legs began to tire. Her first step was slower than it was at 11 a.m. — when she played her first match of the day — but she persevered through.

Hureau said she tried to keep moving because if she stopped, it was hard to move again.

“You don’t want to think too much about [fatigue] because there’s always a ball coming back,” she said.

She fought off a 2-0 run by Sanders by winning her fourth game, putting the final set at 4-2.

However, in the following game, she called a ball out of bounds that was immediately corrected by the line judge. Sanders cut the lead to 4-3.

As the set continued, the cheers and the score announcements from the line judge progressively began to favor Notre Dame. Sanders pulled ahead with a 5-4 lead and Hureau dug deep to find the energy to return each ball played to her.

In the final game of the three-hour match, Sanders blanked Hureau and clinched the dual by a final match score of 6-7, 7-5, 6-4.

“It was pretty hard physically, the points were long and I started to cramp in the second set but I really wanted to win for the team,” Hureau said. “It was a good battle and she hit some good shots in the end. Congrats to her. I tried my best.”

Loring said the loss was especially disappointing though, considering how close the team was to victory.

“They came back from down 6-3 in the deciding doubles match so I give Notre Dame credit, they found a way to pull that out,” Loring said. “It’s just disappointing. It’s the third one in a row where we’re literally four or five points from the match and couldn’t close it out.”